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A judicial compensation committee is recommending Manitoba's provincial court judges get a 2.9% pay raise retroactive to April 1, 2011 and two subsequent years of pay hikes tied to the average wage growth in the province.

Judges' annual salaries would immediately jump to $218,000 and would rise again this year and next.

Taxpayers would have to pay interest on that back pay. And the chief judge would get an 8% premium on top of the base pay for judges, according to the JCC report tabled in the provincial legislature Tuesday.

Not a bad deal. For the judges, anyway.

A 2.9% raise and subsequent inflationary adjustments isn't a massive increase. However, it's the process by which judges are paid that I have a problem with because it's caused the salaries of judges to soar over time.

From 1999 to 2011, the annual salaries of provincial court judges have skyrocketed to $218,000 from $122,000. That's an average increase of almost 5% a year.

By comparison, Premier Greg Selinger was paid $142,071 in 2011. Justice Minister Andrew Swan received a salary of $124,977. And most top Crown attorneys earned about $129,000 last year.

Besides, how many rank-and-file taxpayers out there are getting pay hikes of 5% a year?

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that judges are not civil servants and as such, governments cannot negotiate with them directly. Judges have judicial independence, which is supposed to guarantee them tenure, financial security and administrative independence.

As a result, governments have to rely on recommendations made by independent bodies, the top court has decreed.

Judges taking care of other judges? Yep.

In Manitoba, that independent body is called a judicial compensation committee, made up of a panel-of-three.

Under provincial law, the salaries of judges here must be comparable to the average salaries of judges in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. They call it the "three-province average."

And if the panel recommends a salary at or below that level, it's binding on the government. The commission does consider many other factors, though, including the pay levels of judges in all provinces.

The problem is, every other province has its own judicial compensation committee and they make the same kinds of province-to-province comparisons Manitoba does. And because they all want to be at, near or above each other's salary levels, it drives up the wages of all judges well above the cost-of-living.

If judges in one province, for example, get a 5% increase, then the judges next door want a 5% increase, too. It's a case of keeping up with the Joneses.

There's always some reason why judges in richer provinces like Alberta insist they should make a certain amount more than their counterparts in poorer provinces like Manitoba or New Brunswick. And in turn, judges in Manitoba and New Brunswick want to make sure they're not falling behind the national average.

It's a system that has served judges very well in this province. But it's taxpayers Ñ very few of who enjoy pay hikes of 5% a year Ñ who get stuck with the bill.

Meanwhile, the JCC's recommendations are not final until they're passed by a legislative standing committee, and ultimately by the legislative assembly.

The 2.9% increase part of the deal is binding under provincial law because it's below the "three-province average." And the rest appears to have the blessing of Justice Minister Swan.

"This seems to be a fairly reasonable way to proceed," Swan told the Winnipeg Sun Tuesday.

It's good work if you can get.

But most of us won't get anywhere near those kinds of salary increases.

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Brodbeck: MB judges live high on the hog

A judicial compensation committee is recommending Manitoba's provincial court judges get a 2.9% pay raise retroactive to April 1, 2011 and two subsequent years of pay hikes tied to the average wage growth in the province.

Judges' annual salaries would immediately jump to $218,000 and would rise again this year and next.

Taxpayers would have to pay interest on that back pay. And the chief judge would get an 8% premium on top of the base pay for judges, according to the JCC report tabled in the provincial legislature Tuesday.

Not a bad deal. For the judges, anyway.

A 2.9% raise and subsequent inflationary adjustments isn't a massive increase. However, it's the process by which judges are paid that I have a problem with because it's caused the salaries of judges to soar over time.

From 1999 to 2011, the annual salaries of provincial court judges have skyrocketed to $218,000 from $122,000. That's an average increase of almost 5% a year.